The Aftermath
by Star Matrix
Summary: Continues the saga
1. The Wasteland

1 The Aftermath  
  
2 By: John P. Rod II  
  
1  
  
As Artanis glanced upon the charred wasteland that was once his homeland, Zeratul stood beside him, taking in the full effect of their situation. They were standing on the top of the ancient Xel'Naga temple, with no living being in sight, only desert. Moments before it had been an oasis, a huge, ever-growing jungle. But when the masses of Guardians, Mutalisks, Hydralisks, and all other zerg strains peeked over the horizon, that all changed. The only things that the Zerg cherish are death, destruction, and allegiance and eternal loyalty to the Overmind. Artanis and Zeratul had been waiting for their arrival. They joined the Uraj and Khydarin crystal into the energy orb of the temple, and used it as a massive nuclear weapon of mass destruction that destroyed every living thing on Auir, except for themselves.  
  
As the flames consumed Zerg and Protoss alike, Artanis and Zeratul were fighting for their lives as well. As the explosion was going off, both Artanis and Zeratul had to keep the crystals in their positions or else the explosion would cease and their quest to rid the universe of the Zerg would be in vain. When the explosion ceased, Artanis could finally open his eyes and view his surroundings, since the blinding light was gone. As Artanis viewed the landscape, he shuddered. For miles, the only thing that Artanis could see, were corpses. Charred corpses. Thousands of them. They littered the ground for as far as the eye could see. This one image would be burned into Artanis's memory for the rest of his life. This image would haunt his dreams for centuries.  
  
"We have done it. We have saved Auir from the Zerg," exclaimed Zeratul as he made his way down the stairs to the bottom of the temple. "We're going to need an escort to Shakuras, where the Matriarch is currently located."  
  
"I still have my Scout stationed at the bottom of the temple." Said Artanis, following Zeratul down the steps. "I hope it is still operational after that huge blast. Then we would never get off this planet, accept if there were any native Protossians on Shakuras. Then I could establish a psychic link."  
  
"I don't care if I ever see Shakuras again. I just want to get off this god forsaken planet!" said Zeratul as they strolled up to Artanis's prized Scout.  
  
"Looks pretty good to me. Lets just get this baby started."  
  
Artanis lifted the windshield hatch so that they could climb in. Artanis stepped into the pilot seat as Zeratul positioned himself in the gunner's station. Artanis pressed the ignition switch, heard the engines choke, and then flipped the auxiliary power switch to kick the jet boosters into gear. To Artanis's relief, blue flame spurted from the end of the Scout and then the engine spurred up. Artanis closed the windshield hatch, put on the hover boosters, and fastened his safety belt as Zeratul loaded the main guns.  
  
As Artanis's Scout broke the atmosphere on a course to Shakuras, he wondered if there was any native of Auir left in the universe beside him. Artanis shuddered at the thought. As if out of nowhere, a lone mutalisk flashed directly in front of Artanis on his left side.  
  
"Mutalisk at 10 o' clock. Zeratul, get ready for some fancy maneuvering!" Shouted Artanis, his adrenaline rushing at the thought of a dogfight.  
  
Artanis jerked the control stick left, maneuvering the nimble Scout behind the mutalisk. "Let's get ready to rumbleeeeeee!"  
  
Zeratul was surprised at the battle fury that the young praetor was undergoing. "I got a lock on. And fire!" Zeratul shouted as his thumb pressed down on the trigger. "In the name of justice, you must perish!"  
  
All of a sudden, the mutalisk jerked to the left, avoiding the oncoming missile. As the missile readjusted itself and headed back toward its target, the mutalisk circled behind the Scout, out of Artanis's view. When Artanis circled the Scout around, he gasped. The mutalisk had regrouped with about three scourges.  
  
"What the heck are those?" said Zeratul, obviously not familiar with Zerg air strains, since being an infantry in all.  
  
"Kamikaze freaks! Kick the auxiliary boosters into gear! We're getting the hell out of here!" Shouted Artanis as a Scourge exploded only a few yards from the Scout. "Jesus! That was close. Are you okay back there!?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's just get out of here in one piece!" shouted Zeratul over the roar of the engines.  
  
"Hey! What's that ahead! Looks like… more scourges! Hard left now!"  
  
"We're not gonna make it! Arghhhhh…!" Zeratul's sentence was cut off as the explosion of the oncoming scourge rocked the Scout violently.  
  
"Zeratul! Say something! Are you okay? Talk to me damnit!" screamed Artanis as he turned around in his seat to look at his co-pilot.  
  
He was unconscious. Artanis reviewed the damage assessment. The right engine had been blown out, the gas and oxygen tanks had been ruptured, and the auxiliary boosters were fried. "Computer, activate heat shield," Artanis calmly said as he prepared to enter the nearest planet's atmosphere.  
  
"This is going to hurt." 


	2. Mutalsisks

2  
  
Zeratul popped his eyes open. He had been knocked unconscious after his head slammed into the side of the wall of the Scout, following the massive explosion of the oncoming Scourge. Now he was awake, watching Artanis fight with the Scout's controls.  
  
He was frightened now, probably for the first time in his life. He was unfamiliar with the sensation, it startled him. He was most likely going to die right when the Scout pummeled through the atmosphere and hit the ground. This was not the way he wanted to die. He wanted to die on the plains of Aiur, while being ripped apart by the Zerg.  
  
He shouted to Artanis. Artanis didn't seem to here him, so Zeratul was about to shout again when Artanis replied, "Zeratul, you can help me by shutting up so I can concentrate, and also by turning off all auxiliary boosters so we can slow down enough before we hit the ground!"  
  
To make the situation even worse, the mutalisk had gotten some reinforcements and was now following them through the atmosphere. Seeing the mutalisks behind the Scout, Artanis began to panic.  
  
Zeratul saw the panic in Artanis's eyes, and turned around to find out what had panicked Artanis so much. That's when he saw the mutalisks, as well as the glave worms flying at them. His eyes also widened with alarm. "Brake hard left!" he shouted.  
  
Artanis jerked the controls to the left, just avoiding the mutalisk's onslaught. Artanis then looked forward. They were through the atmosphere, and the ground was fast approaching. Artanis leveled out the Scout as much as possible, but it was still quite vertical. "This isn't going to be easy," thought Artanis as they rocketed toward the ground. "I hope we can land this thing."  
  
"Artanis! Hard right! Now!"  
  
Artanis turned around to see another volley of glave worms flying at them. He jerked the controls right, then reoriented himself in order to stay as horizontal as possible. They cleared the clouds, and now Artanis could see the ground clearly. It was a vast desert, no water in sight. Many valleys and mountain ranges dotted the landscape, and that was pretty much all the geographical features of the planet. They were hurtling towards the ground. Artanis then realized then that if they wanted to survive the crash, they needed to slow down drastically.  
  
"Zeratul, are there any boosters still turned on?" he shouted.  
  
"Yeah, the main thrusters!"  
  
"Well shut the damn things off!"  
  
Zeratul shut the main thrusters and Artanis saw a slight change in their speed, but not much. He needed to make the ship as un-aerodynamic as possible. So, he put the down the landing gear, activated the back-up boosters and turned them off, and extended the wing flaps. The Scout now looked like a flying pile of banged up metal, and that slowed them down. Artanis was still unsure if they were to survive the crash. He had done all he could. As he waited for the ship to make contact with the ground, he prayed to the ancient gods of the Protoss race.  
  
The Scout hit the ground with such impact that it caused a huge crater to form in the ground. The mutalisks thought the two inhabitants of the ship were dead. As the mutalisks flew off, one was still doubtful, and stayed behind. It waited, just to make sure. Hours passed, and just when the mutalisks was about to fly off, it saw something stir in the spacecraft. And then he saw a bruised and battered figure rise from the wreckage of the now infunctional Scout.  
  
Zeratul was awake. He had somehow survived the crash. He pulled himself from the wreckage, and then saw the bloody body of his comrade, Artanis. He was dead, his life force depleted. Zeratul's rage boiled up inside of him. Then he heard the screech of the mutalisk. He turned around. He was not afraid, but rather glad, because he had something to vent his anger upon, to rip to shreds. A fire that had only once been seen when he had found out that his comrade Tassadar had fallen, now shown in Zeratul's eyes. Zeratul charged the mutalisk. The mutalisk reared back in alarm, then reoriented itself and shot a glave worm directly at Zeratul. Zeratul kept running, heading straight for the oncoming glave worm. He stepped right in front of it, activated his specially modified psi blade, and with one swift hand motion, sliced the attack into pieces. The mutalisk was shocked; it had never seen such skill with a blade. Seeing this was going to be more than a quick skirmish, the mutalisk started to retreat.  
  
"Oh no you don't!" Zeratul shouted to the mutalisk. "You won't get off that easily!"  
  
The mutalisk began to fly faster, realizing that this skilled opponent wasn't going to let the mutalisk get away without a fight.  
  
Zeratul's speed was amazing. He leaned forward, gaining aerodynamics and momentum. The mutalisk was frightened now. Zeratul gained on the mutalisk easily, and leapt on it's back with ferocity and grace. The mutalisk was caught off guard, and before it realized what was going on, it was spiraling towards the ground, one of it's wings falling victim to Zeratul's psi blade.  
  
The dead mutalisk fell to the ground. Zeratul sat on a nearby rock, cleaning his bloodstained clothes. 


	3. Infestation

3  
  
The funeral was short. Zeratul had paid his respects and buried the body of his friend and partner. He said a prayer, and then resumed on thinking of his own problems. He was stranded on a barren planet, no food or water. He had no way presently of getting off the planet, but he was intent on finding one. He searched for hours. What he was looking for, he was not sure. But once he found it, he would now that it would get him the hell out of there.  
  
He searched for hours, and found nothing. The twin suns had set, and now it was pitch black, and cold. Very cold. The only source of heat and light were his psi blades, and the mechanism that activated them had soon frozen. He would soon freeze to death, if the sun did not rise quickly.  
  
He lost all track of time. He was a shadow, wandering in the dark. He saw no signs of life whatsoever, except for a few animal carcasses that he could not identify.  
  
Then he heard a sound. It was a very faint sound, but it was a sound. Then he saw the light. He then recognized the craft. It was a Terran vulture. "Such a crude form of transportation," Zeratul said to himself as the craft drew closer. He waved to the driver. It did not see him. Zeratul shouted in the human's language, "Over here!"  
  
The driver heard him. He shouted in return, "Who goes there?"  
  
"It is Zeratul, Dark Templar of the legions of the Protoss!"  
  
The driver's eyes widened in alarm. "Die, alien scum!" he shouted as he sent a volley of fragmentation grenades at Zeratul. "Burn in hell!"  
  
Zeratul was surprised at the human's ferocity. He thought that the human's and prottossians had allied against the zerg He dived behind a nearby rock. The sun began to rise. The ice that had frozen his blade now melted. He stood up and lunged towards the driver. The driver started to drive off, but Zeratul swung his blade in a sweeping arc, and sliced the Vulture in half.  
  
The driver was flung from the craft and hit the ground awkwardly, snapping his left arm. He got up and with his right hand, pulled out a pistol and began to shoot at Zeratul. The bullets bounced right off Zeratul's shield. Zeratul charged at him, activated his blade again and sliced the human in half. The human's legs fell to the ground twitching, while his upper half hit the ground three feet away, lifeless and gushing blood.  
  
Looking the body over closely, he has discovered that Kaiser blades were emerging from the man's arms.  
  
~Flashback~  
  
Zeratul was standing outside the ancient Xel'Naga temple. He marveled in awe at the masses of Zerg legions rushing towards the wall of Protoss warriors. He turned towards Artanis, nodding his head, giving the signal for the destructive process to commence. They both placed the Khydarin and Uraj crystals in the rift of the temple. Huge pillars suddenly rose out of the ground, while rotating about the temple. The temple was creating energy. Before the blinding flash of light and the deafening explosion, Zeratul saw the waves of warriors clash. He then saw legions of the Zerg leap over their comrades and self-destruct, spewing toxic acid all over the battlefield. Anyone who touched this liquid was boiled alive; Zeratul noticed that the legions of the Zealots were falling to the ground and turning into pools of blood.  
  
He had heard of these sickly creatures, they had once been Terran soldiers, fighting to rid the world of the Overmind. Now they were legions of the Zerg, giving their lives for the glory of the Overmind. They had been mutated into deformed Zerg strains. They had no mind, no intelligence. They now of only one emotion, hate.  
  
~End of Flashback~  
  
Zeratul was brought back to reality when the infested human began to speak. "Get... out... of... me!"  
  
The human seemed to be fighting with the virus. He began to stir, rolling around in the dirt, twitching erratically. His eyes flashed white, then red, then back to white. `The virus only can control a portion of the mind. It needs time to infest the whole brain,' thought Zeratul as the half-human, half-zerg began to flail about, screaming. The human was grasping his head. As if out of nowhere, the Zerg seemed to take complete control. It lashed out at Zeratul, just missing his throat. The body began to regenerate its legs, if you could call them legs. They were more like tentacles. It screeched, and stood up straight. It was about seven feet tall, and was about a head taller than Zeratul. He re-activated his psi blades, ready for an attack. The beast did not attack, only stared right into Zeratul's eyes, as if to intimidate him.  
  
Zeratul was not afraid. Decades of confrontations with the Zerg had taught him not to be. He only stared back. He did not see the human in its eyes; it had completely taken over. There was no stopping the thing now. His only choice was to kill it. He took a step back, and then activated his stealth shield, not taking any chances with this one.  
  
The beast was alarmed. It stepped back, and then began to flail its Kaiser blades. It hit nothing but air. Then it felt weightlessness, like it was floating. It hit he ground, and then it saw its body fall three feet away. Its head had been severed off. Its eyes rolled over, showing nothing but red. Then it saw nothing, and its body went limp. It was dead, for the last time. 


End file.
